Stolen waters are sweet, and the bread of secrecy is pleasant.
Folly is pictured here as a woman calling from her doorway, and this line is her whole sales pitch. Two questions follow: who is speaking, and why does her offer work on people who were walking straight ahead?
The Bible records these words, but it does not recommend them. One writer notes how often people repeat the line as though God said it:
How often we hear people claim that the Bible says, "Stolen water is sweet"! The truth is far from that: Scripture says a wicked woman said it.
And her "folly" is not a weak mind:
We must not think that the folly here means a weak mind. It is the absence of care or thought, of heart or conscience, toward God — and Satan encourages this in people who are in the dark.
Wisdom's invitation earlier in the chapter is open and generous. Folly offers stolen water. The strange thing is which offer the human heart prefers:
Everything on wisdom's side was open, sound, holy, and unselfish. How sinister the speech of the foolish woman! "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." Wisdom's appeal needs grace before anyone finds it attractive. Her rival's invitation fits the dark heart of man exactly as he is. He enjoys what is forbidden, and what can only be snatched by trickery. He distrusts what is given free, and cannot understand the greatest good as a gift of grace.
Another writer sees the same instinct in the sin of Amnon, a king's son who took what was forbidden him:
The fence around what he wanted was low enough to be jumped, and that may have encouraged him. A rule broken through has a charm of its own.
She does not call to everyone. She picks her hearers:
Loud, simple, and ignorant! Who would listen to her? Yet she draws in those who are not completely careless. She calls to passers-by who go straight on their way. Not the indifferent. She can let them walk on. They go on to judgment without her help. She appeals to those who want a plain path.
The pull of the forbidden is not only about obvious vice. One writer applies the verse to priests who worshipped with fire God had not commanded:
Man has always shown himself unwilling to walk the narrow path of strict obedience to the plain word of God. The side path has always seemed to hold charms the poor human heart cannot resist. "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
Her line is followed by a verse she never quotes:
She may call them "sweet … and pleasant," but anyone who gives in to her invitation will find that her sweets are bitter-sweets… Keeping company with the system this foolish woman pictures brings death to both body and soul. This world carries on with the secret things of darkness and the pleasures of sin for a season, but death and destruction wait for it.
The guest never hears the price list at the door:
Of course, this is an appeal only to sinful flesh. Those who love folly accept it without realizing that "the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell." Sadly, how many wake up too late!
- Quoted, not endorsed. The Bible records this line as a wicked woman's sales pitch, not as God's verdict. It reports her words to expose them.
- Sweetness is the bait. The claim is true only about the taste. She says nothing about the dead in her house or the guests in the depths.
- Folly is not stupidity. The fault is the absence of care, heart or conscience toward God. A clever person can be her guest.
- Stolen beats free. The heart enjoys what is forbidden and distrusts what is free. That is why wisdom's open table needs grace before anyone finds it appealing.
- She aims at the steady. Those already careless walk to judgment without her help. She calls to the one going straight on his way. The same pull draws people off the plain word of God into the side path.
But he knoweth not that the dead are there; [that] her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Chapter 9 ends by pulling back a curtain: the guest at Folly's table cannot see who else is in the room. Everything turns on one phrase — "he does not know" — and on knowing where a road ends before walking it.
One writer notes how rare such a sight is in the Old Testament. He sets it beside the picture of wisdom in the chapter before:
How solemn when the curtain is drawn back enough to let us see the dread reality! "But he does not know that the dead (or departed, the shades) are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol." In the chapter before, the language about wisdom rose into a living and glorious person — an incomparable object of delight to Jehovah, with no less incomparable delight of love going out to the sons of men. In the same way, chapter 9 ends with a view of the fate that falls on those who lend their ear and follow the tempting words of the foolish woman. It is more awful than anything usual in the Old Testament. What a contrast with leaving off folly and going in the way of intelligence!
Folly's invitation is not attractive by accident. It fits what the human heart already prefers. The same heart distrusts anything offered for nothing.
All was open, sound, holy and unselfish on wisdom's part. How sinister the speech of the foolish woman! "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." But wisdom's appeal needs grace before a person will welcome it. Her rival's invitation suits the dark heart of man exactly as he is. He enjoys what is forbidden, what he can only snatch by cunning. He suspects a free gift. He cannot understand the greatest good as a matter of grace.
Folly advertises the taste. She says nothing about the end.
She may say they are "sweet… and pleasant." But whoever gives in to her invitation will find that her sweets are bitter-sweets… This world goes on with the secret things of darkness and the pleasures of sin for a season. But death and destruction await it at the end.
One writer sums the foolish woman up in a phrase: she is "the world with its lusts" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
She does not call to everyone. Her target is the traveller walking straight on his way, and that changes who is in danger.
Loud, simple and ignorant! Who would listen to her? But she will lure those who are not entirely careless. She calls to travellers who go straight on their ways. Not the indifferent — she can let them pass on; they go on to judgment without her help. She appeals to those who are looking for a plain path… She encourages people to indulge their sinful desires. Her victim "does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol."
The same lure works in religion too. One writer applies verse 17 to self-will in worship: "Man has always shown himself unwilling to walk in the narrow path of strict adherence to the plain word of God. The by-path has always seemed to hold irresistible charm for the poor human heart" (C. H. Mackintosh).
Sheol is the Old Testament word for the place of the dead. Kelly calls those in it "the departed, the shades." One writer argues that the word cannot mean only a burial plot:
Then we have such expressions as the "depths of sheol" (Prov. 9:18), "the lowest sheol" (Ps. 86:13; Deut. 32:22) — the last passage says God's wrath burns to it — "though they dig into sheol" (Amos 9:2), which show that the grave cannot be the whole matter there. So even in sheol (Ps. 139:8) there is no escape from the presence of God: "If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!" Can that be nothing at all?
The verse names guests, so the question is whose table you sit at. One writer puts it to the reader:
Where will you spend eternity? It must be with the one whose "guests are in the depths of Sheol," or with God, who now again invites you to be His guest in heavenly glory. Again He calls; will you again refuse?
- Ignorance — The whole tragedy is in one phrase: he does not know. The menu is on show; the guest list is not.
- Appetite — What is stolen and secret appeals to the heart as it is. The same heart distrusts a free gift. Grace has to make wisdom's invitation welcome.
- Aim — She calls to people already walking straight ahead, not to the careless. The steady traveller is the target.
- Depth — "The depths of Sheol" reaches past the grave. Even there God is present. This is no picture of nothing at all.
- Choice — Two voices, two houses, two guest lists. You will be someone's guest. The verse tells you who is already seated at the wrong table.